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  • E-bikes are a Transportation Revolution
  • Background
  • My E-Bikes / Specs
  • Reflections
  • Getting Started
  • Gear / Accessories
  • Documenting Rides
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E-bikes are a Transportation Revolution

I bought an e-bike in November 2020, it was life-changing, and now I have 4 (pedal-assist, not throttle). I'm documenting my reflections about the e-bike space here, in the hope it will help others.

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Last updated 3 years ago

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4 e-bikes on the Hoboken waterfront

Index

  • Background: bike-sharer β†’ bike-owner β†’ e-bike maniac

  • My e-bikes

    • Overview/Specs: weights between 35-60lbs, ranges from 25-130mi, prices from $1900-$7000 ($2500-$8000 incl. gear)

    • VanMoof X3: great all-around / starter / city e-bike

    • Brompton Electric: smallest fold, most portable, great all around

    • Tern Vektron Q9: large cargo capacity, folds up for easy storage

    • Specialized Creo Comp Carbon: light, fast, long-range

  • Reflections

    • Speed ⟹ Safety: higher top speed – and acceleration – make a big difference in traffic

    • Speed ⟹ Inclusion: a lot more people can get around quickly+comfortably on ebikes

    • Speed ⟹ Convenience: ebikes are as fast as cars in urban environments; can solve congestion and parking issues

    • Space: high mobility per unit space; combine with other modes (trains, buses, ferries)

      • Bike vs. Car Storage: parking takes too much space in cities, and is heavily subsidized; bike parking is 5-10x more efficient

    • Cost: the average car cost could fund e-bikes for 10 families

    • Cargo:

      • Groceries, Bulk Items: basically any grocery run, and a surprising number of bulk item moves, can be done via e-bike

      • Kids: easy to carry 1 or 2 kids by e-bike

      • PoV: Grocery Runs: I get groceries by e-bike and it's great

      • PoV: Moving House: I moved across town – with 2wks of stuff – by ebike

    • Health

    • Fun

    • Car sewers: cars make streets miserable for everyone not in a car; doing this to 100% of streets is extreme, and terrible policy.

  • Getting Started

    • Bike Shares: easy way to get used to city biking/scooting (if unfamiliar)

    • Renting: rent a few types of bikes before buying one

    • Safety

      • Stats

      • Speed

      • Fear

      • Riding on Sidewalks

      • Stopping at Stop Signs / Red Lights

      • Braking: Sheldon Brown on front brakes

      • Helmets: can't hurt, but often used to blame/criminalize cyclists for infrastructure/engineering problems

      • Lights: the more the better

      • Hi-Viz Clothing: similar to helmets; good practice, but often discussed unfairly

    • Route Planning: Street View, Ride with GPS, Strava all useful

    • Traveling with E-bikes: flying generally not possible (might work with e-brompton); trains/boats generally easy/possible

    • Starter Packs

      • VanMoof X3 + Gear: $83/mo (incl. maintenance/theft/insurance coverage), $3k outright

      • RadPower: popular under $2k

    • Reading

      • ElectricBikeReview.com

      • r/ebikes

  • Gear: 10-20% a bike's cost in add-ons can make it 10x more useful

    • Helmets: I use a Lumos "Kickstart" helmet with lights built in

    • Racks, Baskets: starting point for carrying bags' worth of stuff on rides

    • Bags: get weight off of you and onto the bike, where it rolls

      • Panniers: bags that hang from sides of back rack; can be quite large, very useful

      • Cockpit Bags: smaller bags up around your handlebars for essentials

      • Frame Bags: small/medium bags attached to the frame

      • Back-Rack / Seat Bags: medium bags on top of back rack or behind+underneath seat

    • Phone Mounts: phone mounted up front (e.g. w/ turn-by-turn directions) is surprisingly useful; I use Quad Lock.

    • Lights: front, rear, party, Vont 'Pyro' (set), KNOG (set)

    • Locks: Kryptonite U-lock + cable (medium weight, decent security), OnGuard U-Lock (lighter / more clearance but weaker), OTTO cable lock (compact+light extra security layer)

    • Misc. Accessories: bell, rear-view mirrors (1 2), kickstand, hand pump

    • Gloves: padded gloves, light but warm winter gloves

    • Rain Gear: Clever Hoods are popular + good

    • Winter Cycling: easier+better than you think, $200 of gear solves cold down to β‰ˆ25ΒΊF

      • Heated Gloves: my main pair, another good pair, and one that actually makes a women's size

      • Heated Vests

      • Pogies

      • Heated Socks

      • Hand Warmers

    • Action Cameras: I use a GoPro Hero 9 Black and GoPro Hero 8 Black, in a chest harness and seat-rail mount, to film rides

    • Padded Shorts: good all-around active shorts w/ pockets

  • Documenting Rides

    • Ride-tracking apps:

      • Strava: robust recording app (resumes after phone crashes), good small-circle social network, good open data posture

      • RideWithGPS: similar to Strava, emphasis on route planning/sharing, UX is clunkier

      • wandrer.earth: cool app on top of Strava, providing stats/viz about places you've been and places you might still like to explore

    • Post-Processing Videos: dealing with videos afterward is its own adventure

      • GoPros are pretty hard to deal with; telemetry data is often not recorded correctly, and the GoPro software ecosystem is a mess

      • External SSDs: 1TB/2TB Samsungs, palm-sized

      • 512GB micro-SD: never worry about SD-card capacity in-camera (there's enough to worry about when the data comes off the camera)

      • Wasabi Cloud Storage: cheap+easy cloud storage; good option for archival video storage

      • VFX Suites: unfortunately necessary to do anything with action-camera videos

      • YouTube: I've posted some ride videos to Neighbor Ryan on YouTube